Feel, "I so free" Blog

Forgiving Driving Mistakes March 2, 2010

I was taking a little time of reflection, thinking about previous driving situations that I either have been in or witnessed and there is one thing that disturbs me.  Very often, when it comes to simple mistakes, people become far too unforgiving.

By all means, driving can be a dangerous thing, and it is the responsbility of everyone who gets behind the wheel to make sure that the utmost sense of safety is observed because lives actually hang in the balance when people are behind the wheel.  Yet, it is also important for us to realize that we are all humans and sometimes EVERYONE will make a mistake.

So what kind of mistakes should be forgiven.  Well, eventually all mistakes should be forgiveable, but those that should quickly be forgiven are those where no harm was done.  I’ve seen where someone accidentally misjudged the speed and distance  of an approaching car and pulled out, causing the approaching driver to have to hit the brakes harder that he/she would’ve liked, and the approaching driver would react with such HATRED that you’d think they had been attacked!  That is too much… holding down the horn for  an extended period of time, cursing, and so forth, long after the incident (which was actually avoided) has passed.

I’ve seen another recent situation where a driver, for some reason, kept going when the bus was stopped to pick up kids.  The kids were getting on the bus on the other side of the road, so there was no immediate danger, but of course they should’ve stopped for safety purposes.  The driver’s face clearly showed that they knew they had made a mistake and were regretful, but I can understand clearly why they would not have stopped to apologize… because the bus driver and parents at the stop were so vicious looking and furious that it looked like they’d try all that they could to destroy the person!

In such situations, were mistakes made?  Yes!  But the question is, where does the forgiveness come in?  How long must a person suffer (especially when they are willing to acknowledge their mistake and express true remorse) in order to satisfy people?  I’m not saying that people should not be held accountable, especially if someone was hurt or there was some damage caused, but we also have to be willing to forgive!  If there was no damage or injury, rather than be so bitter, angry, and hatefully hostile, why not forgive, just as you’d want to be forgiven if you made the same mistake, and please, don’t be so arrogant to say you’d never make the same mistake.  Even if you don’t make the same mistake, you too have screwed up at some point in your life regarding something, so we all need to be a lot more forgiving when it comes to simple, “no harm, no foul” mistakes and give others the same consideration that we’d like for ourselves and that they deserve, especially when they are truly sorry for the mistake they made.